Indexing a withdrawal from one’s previously-taken position

Using conversation analysis as the research method, this article investigates what participants do with the multiple saying duì duì duì (‘right right right’) when they take divergent positions in Mandarin Chinese conversation. A participant may deploy duì duì duì to claim recalibrating understanding, which indexes a backdown or withdrawal from a previously-taken position. There are two trajectories to make such concessions. One is “Claim X — Concession (duì duì duì) — Claim Y”, with Y taking the co-participant’s perspective into account and duì duì duì serving as a pivot for the new Claim Y. The other is “Claim X — Concession (duì duì duì)”, in which conceding means abandoning. Through these trajectories, participants find out something different and implicate that their prior action is problematic due to not taking something into account, so they concede and change. This article will contribute to both concession and multiple sayings studies.